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the pert nonsense of his phraseology, the shallowness of understanding which it evinces, and the hardness of heart from which it must have proceeded, may be left without a comment. In the victory of the first of June, there was a monkey on board the Royal Sovereign, who making his appearance while preparations were going on, was clained in the launch on the main deck, that he might be out of the way; and there he was, to the great amusement of all who saw him, 'jumping mad,' as it is expressively called, with tear, during the whole engagement. If the gentleman who talks so pleasantly of the harmless. ness of these affairs had been stationed at Pug's quarters, he might have ac quired more correct notions,.. in fit company. I doubt not he would have agreed with the Irish Major, who went a cruise in hopes of seeing what kind of business a naval action was, and when his curiosity came to be gratified, declared with

an oath, that a sea-fight was a mighty sairious sort of a thing.

22. Wild beasts.

The Missionary Anderson says of the country about the Zak river, in South Africa, (or British Africa, as it may now be called,) that there is very little to entertain a stranger there, excepting the wild beasts. The sort of entertainment which they can afford would be the very last, one should suppose, that either man or horse would wish to meet with.

Some ingenious methods of destroying wild beasts are described in Captain Williamson's Oriental Sports,.. a book which has more interesting facts in it than many a graver work upon India. He tells us, that "when the track of a tyger has been ascertained, which though not invariably the same, may. yet be known sufficiently for the purpose, the peasants collect a quantity of

the leaves of the prauss, which are like those of the sycamore, and are common in most underwoods, as they form the larger portion of most jungles in the north of India. These leaves are then smeared with a species of bird-lime, made by bruising the berries of an indigenous tree, by no means scarce; they are then strewed with the gluten uppermost, near to that opake spot to which it is understood the tyger usually resorts during the noontide heats. If by chance the animal should tread on one of the smeared leaves, his fate may be cunsidered as decided. He commences by shaking his paw, with the view to remove the adhesive incumbrance; but finding no relief from that expedient, he rubs the nuisance against his face with the same intention, by which means his eyes, ears, &c. become agglutinated, and occasion such uneasiness as causes him to roll, perhaps among many more of the smeared VOL. 11.

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leaves, till at length he becomes com. pletely enveloped, and is deprived of sight. In this situation he may be com pared to a man who has been tarred and feathered. The anxiety produced by this strange and novel predicament soon discovers itself in dreadful howlings, which serve to call the watchful peasants, who in this state find no difficulty in shooting the mottled object of detes tation.".. It would have been a pity to have altered this "well-cull'd, choice, sweet, and apt" term for a tyger!.

"This

A good method of destroying tygers is said to be common in Persia, and towards the north of Hindostan. device consists of a large semispherical cage, made of strong bamboos, or other efficient materials, woven together, but leaving intervals throughout, of about three or four inches broad. Under this cover, which is fastened to the ground by means of pickets, in some place where tygers abound, a man, provided

* Oriental Sports, Vol. 1, p. 204.

with two or three short strong spears, takes post at night. Being accompanied by a dog, which gives the aların, or by a goat, which by its agitation answers the same purpose, the adventurer wraps himself up in his quilt, and very composedly goes to sleep, in full confidence of his safety. When a tyger comes, and perhaps after smelling all around, begins to rear against the cage, the man stabs him with one of the spears through the interstices of the wicker work, and rarely fails of destroying the tyger, which is ordinarily found dead at no great distance in the morning*.'

Herrera (4, 10, 13,) says of the Indians of Verapaz, that when they meet a tyger they fall down and beseech him not to kill them. This was from superstition; they worshipped their deity, or their devil, in that shape. They who were converted found bows and arrows more effectual than supplications.

*Oriental Sports, Vol. 1, p. 203,

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